Paul Nugent and Wolfgang Zeller participating in

first World Conference of the Association of Borderland Studies

The conference began in Joensuu, Finland on Monday 9th June and on its third day crossed the border to Russia to continue in St Petersburg until 13th June. Paul and Wolfgang, along with CAS honorary fellow Karine Bennafla and CAS graduate Hugh Lamarque are part of the ca. 30 person strong Africanist contingent brought to the conference as part of the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE) activities. CAS PhD candidate Mariama Khan presented her paper via a skype link. Emily Knowles from PIR (who was awarded a prize for her paper) and Juija Sardelic from the School of Law are non- Africanist participants from The University of Edinburgh.

The conference explores the theme of 'Post Cold-War Borders', with all world regions and social sciences represented by the over 450 participants. This first-ever meeting of its kind is a major step for the field of boundary and borderland studies and an ideal venue for ABORNE both to reflect on its achievements over the past 5 years of network funding by the European Science Foundation, and to present these to the wider scientfic community.

Paul Nugent gave his keynote address to the plenary on the theme 'Port Cities and Border Towns in Africa: Or Why the Margins Matter'.